Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan, may have died, but it is almost certain his character’s legacy will live on.
“Hulk Hogan has the potential to be a Marilyn Monroe, James Dean or Muhammad Ali. The potential is limitless,” said Ed Schauder, an attorney who represents celebrity estates including Yogi Berra and Josh Gibson and previously represented Joe Frazier’s, among others. “He transcended sports and changed the sport and was in the movies and did reality television and had an interesting life. He has massive, massive potential,” the attorney added on a phone call.
Schauder, now special counsel at the law firm of Nason Yeager, was the licensing attorney at then-named World Wrestling Federation in the early 1990s, crafting licensing deals for WWE properties, including for Hulk Hogan vitamins—a deal that caused some stress after Hogan’s steroid use got attention, he said.
According to the attorney, the potential ways for Hogan’s estate to capitalize on his renown are plenty, from biographies, movies, documentaries and the sale of memorabilia, including authenticated pieces of gear in trading cards. In the age of AI, Hulk Hogan could even be revived for commercial activities, as was done with Biggie Smalls.
Making the estate even more valuable is that Bollea owned the trademark to “Hulk Hogan,” “Hulkamania” and “the Hulkster,” according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Typically, WWE owns the rights to its characters, not its wrestlers, but Marvel comics in the 1980s claimed WWE was infringing on its Hulk character. The two parties had a deal for 20 years that let the Hulk Hogan name be used for a nominal amount, according to Hogan while speaking on a 2023 podcast with Theo Von. After that deal expired around 2005, Hogan struck a one-year contract with Marvel to use the name out of desperation to make money. In the short term it was a terrible deal for Bollea—Marvel took 30% of all his earnings—but the contracts gave Bollea right of first refusal if Marvel ever tried to sell the Hulk Hogan name.
“All of a sudden, Marvel Comics gets in a bitch fest with WWE about intellectual properties, that they can’t re-air old Hulk Hogan matches,” Hogan recounted. “Marvel Comics lost. They owe Vince $35 million. They made a huge mistake. They said, ‘Instead of paying $35 million, how about we give you the Hulk Hogan name.’ I heard about it and went, ‘You screwed up now.’ Because now I don’t have to pay $35 million for the name, you have to sell it to me at fair market value, which is only like 750 grand. So I bought the name back.”
Bollea probably never made a better deal in his life. If Hulk Hogan’s name, image and likeness are on par with Monroe and Ali, the brand is probably worth at least what Marvel floated it as—$35 million. Or more: In 2018, Authentic Brands Group and NECA bought Monroe’s rights for a reported $30 million, while in 2006 ABG bought 80% of Ali’s rights for a reported $50 million.
But Hulk Hogan’s brand may not hold as much appeal as Monroe or Ali, given Bollea’s racism and his high profile move into politics, endorsing Donald Trump at the Republican convention last year—two factors that could hurt his posthumous appeal. Then there is also the possibility of estate problems throwing a further wrench into its value, depending on how the estate is set up and how many heirs Bollea has. “If everybody’s fighting over it, it becomes a problem,” Schauder said. More than one celebrity’s estate he has represented failed to produce much revenue due to infighting.
But assuming Bollea’s will and estate structure is solid and marketers feel Bollea didn’t damage the Hulk Hogan brand too much, he probably leaves a wealthy legacy for his heirs.
The one thing Bollea didn’t get rights to? Thunderlips, his character’s name in Rocky III. A 2017 application by Bollea to trademark the name for personal appearances and wrestling-related events was rejected by the trademark office (though a microbrewery in Ohio got rights to put the name on a beer in 2021.)
Darren Prince, the CEO of Prince Marketing, which represents Hogan for licensing deals, declined to comment for this article. But in a testament to how powerful a brand Hulk Hogan is, Prince’s voicemail greeting features Bollea’s distinctive Hulk voice—and his openness to marketing: “What you gonna do when the Prince Marketing-a-mania runs wild on you, brother?”
